Fontus Device Turns Air Into Water

Trending News: New Device For Bike Riders Makes Water Out Of Thin Air

Why Is This Important?

Because we can now create water out of thin air, it seems.

Long Story Short

A device has been made that can turn air into water as you ride your bike.

Long Story

Get your fixie ready, iron your best plaid, and hem those chinos. To all you hip kids out there drinking from coconuts and enjoying kale and quinoa superfoods with pulled pork, there is now something unbelievable you can do while riding your bike — make your own water.

Industrial Design student Kristof Retezár from the University of Applied Arts Vienna, has designed a really clever gadget that makes an unlimited supply of fresh water. His product, called Fontus after the Roman god for wells and springs, sits on a bike frame and condenses the air that flows through it into drinkable water (unless you live somewhere with extremely high pollution).

The air passes through a filter at the front, into a cooler that condenses the air into water. The cooler works in two parts, with the top half cool and the bottom half hot, with solar panels mounted on the exterior producing all the power that is needed. The more the bottom is cooled, the colder the whole chamber becomes.

In this cooler, the air passes through a series of perforated walls, which gives the air time to slow as it passes through, thus removing the water molecules from the air. Once the water is extracted, it drips down a tube into a connected water bottle.

“After more than 30 experiments, I finally achieved a constant drop-flow of one drop of condensed water per minute. After developing a functioning inner system, I designed a compact and practical hull that can be easily attached to a bicycle, integrates the water bottle and can be comfortably handled,” said Retezár at the James Dyson Award.

Based on that figure, it takes about an hour to fill a 17-ounce water bottle. The conditions the bottle works best in are when temperatures are around 68 Fahrenheit and when humidity is around 50%.

The water bottle was a finalist in the James Dyson Award 2014 and was born from a desire to tackle one of the world’s less debated environmental concerns.

The design was inspired by the UN statistic that there are currently 2 billion people across 40 countries who live in areas of high water scarcity, and it’s estimated that 47% of the world’s population will live under water stress by 2030.

So along with its use on bikes, it could also be a novel way of producing water in countries that are low on ground water, but have environments with high humidity.

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question: Could this principle be extrapolated and used in much larger technology, potentially as a fuel source?

Disrupt Your Feed: Hmm. I wonder how much sweat could I make in a hour of cycling?

Drop This Fact: It’s estimated there are around 50 billion bottles of water sold around the world each year.